China's Luxury Car Market Has Its Own 'Big 3'

Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz accounted for about 95 percent of luxury cars sold in the Chinese marketplace in 2012, according to a report published by the China Car Times.

The report indicates that five brands accounted for sales of 656,160 luxury cars sold nationwide. Audi, the undisputed king in Chinas’ luxury automotive market accounted for 364,096 of the cars; BMW sold 170,497; and Mercedes-Benz moved 106,581 cars in 2012. Volvo and Cadillac round out the top five with car sales of 7,978 and 7008, respectively.

Audi have managed to understand the psyche of the Chinese consumer, firstly they targeted the government markets with lengthened products such as the Audi A6L and then they brought it down to family users and private business owners that wanted the length of the A6L but with A4 equipment levels, hence the A4L.BMWcame to China to make cars in 2002 with its partnerbrilliancewith plants in Beijing, the 3-Series and 5-Series were quickly localized but the range was expanded to include imported models that were quickly pushed into local production to bring the brand to a wider audience, see theBMWX1 for such an example.

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